Many children love creating art. Crafting, drawing and painting are more than fun for children, they are also beneficial in helping to improve small muscle skills and hand-eye coordination. Experience with the arts at an early age will also foster an appreciation for art that your child will carry into adulthood. Try this couple of simple art project ideas if you want to give your child a creative and enjoyable opportunity to develop a number of different skills as well.

Crawling creations by hand

When you want an art project that’s nice, fast, and affordable, it’s hard to find one that’s better than hand tracing. The only supplies you will need are crayons, paper, and your child’s hand. Start by having your child trace his hand on a piece of paper with one of the crayons. Then let your creativity run wild by transforming your hand trace into something unique. Many people will remember this activity at school during Thanksgiving season when they were taught to transform their hand strokes into a Thanksgiving turkey, but there are many other artistic possibilities. How about letting the fingers be pointy hairs and drawing a silly face on the palm of the tracing hand? Or try flipping the paper over to make the tracing fingers look like the legs of an insect or any form of scary creation. Hand Art is an affordable and imaginative option for an art day. And make sure that you and your child select your most beloved pair of creations so that they can be displayed in photo frames in your home.

“Tie Dye “with paper towels

With a roll of paper towels, water, several rubber bands or grocery “ties,” a handful of paper clips, a few small bowls, and a set of watercolor paint, your kids can make a great deal of tie dye art. Begin by protecting the surface of the table where you are working with a kind of vinyl or plastic tablecloth. Next, fold one of the paper towels in an alternating fan-fold pattern. Take rubber bands, twisted ties, or paper clips and place them in various places along the folds of the paper. Next, pour some water into each of the small bowls. Using the brush and watercolor paint set, stain each container of water a different color. Dip the various edges of the paper towel folds into the bowls of colored water.

The colored water will be absorbed by the paper towel everywhere except under the rubber bands, twisted ties, and paper clips, where it will remain white. Once you’ve finished dipping the towel in colors, use clean paper towels to remove the extra moisture from the folded towel. Then you’re ready to gently remove the paper clips, rubber bands, and twisted ties that reveal your tie-dye creation. Make sure to lay the towel on a flat surface and allow it to dry completely. You can also cover your creation with a clean paper towel and then iron it to remove wrinkles or crease lines. These colorful tie-dye creations look gorgeous when displayed in photo frames.